The present invention relates generally to the field of address indicators and mailboxes, and in particular, to a new and useful address indicator combination that is solar powered and is for use with and without a mailbox, for displaying the address of a house or building or the like.
Illuminated signs for indicating the address number for a house or building, where the illumination energy is solar powered, are well known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,525 to Williams, discloses a solar powered yard marker having individual character panels. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,087 to Karkar et al.
An Illuminated sign in conjunction with a mailbox is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,285 to Wise. A combination mailbox and address indicator which is solar powered, is also know from U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,325 to Surman. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,540 to Surman for a mailbox with address indicator and separately mounted solar panel. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,325 to Cathel and another illuminated display with separately mountable characters that are back lit, is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,373 to Sexton.
An address indicator with mailbox, solar powering and a rail system for a slidably receiving multiple character panels is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,876 to Shirah. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,193 to Katulka and U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,366 to Peng, et al.
Finally for the inventors' previous patent application which is not prior art to the present application, but which shows additional thinking on the part of the inventors, see U.S. Published Patent Application 2008/0005943 published Jan. 10, 2008 to Chao, et al.
A need remains for a practical, economical, easy to use and long lasting, solar powered address indicator.